Saturday, January 30, 2010

Amazon vs. Macmillan

This just in: Bookselling behemoth Amazon is in a major smackdown with publishing titan Macmillan because Macmillan wants Amazon to charge more for ebooks, and Amazon won't budge. So Amazon has dropped all of Macmillan's print books by way of retaliation!

In other words, many books which are actually in print appear to be out of print, unless you check the Powells or Barnes and Noble or other bookselling sites, that is.

I tell you this partly because two of my own books are affected by the current state of affairs: The Runaway Princess and The Runaway Dragon, which up until a day or so ago were sold on Amazon, among other sites. So, hear ye, hear ye - my books are still in print, and so are a lot of other books from Macmillan and their publishing groups, e.g., Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Sigh. I hope they work things out soon. I've heard of divorce counseling, but I'm not sure who these feuding corporations can call in to help them talk through their childhood issues, or at least their marketing differences. We'll have to wait and see what happens next... Anyway, thanks to Charlotte Taylor of Charlotte's Library for explaining the mysterious change I'd noticed in Amazon's book listings this morning - she always seems to know stuff!

The sketch of a battle scene above is by Hans Holbein the Younger.

Update: Amazon and Macmillan have come to an agreement. My books reappeared on Amazon on 2/5/10.

ABOUT ME

I am madly in love with children's books and want to get great books into the hands of kids who will love them, too. Books are like magnifying glasses, intensifying the wonders of people and their imaginations and everything in the world from spiders to shoelaces. Books are a unique sort of conversation. I write them, too, mostly MG fantasy, but sometimes poetry and picture books. Thank you, Johanes Gutenberg!